Effect of Concept Mapping Technique on Secondary School Students’ Interest and Achievement in Economics in Ikara, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Bulus Manasseh; Prof. Ahmed Henry Eggon; Augustine S. Azi PhD

doi:10.56201/ijssmr.vol.12no7.2026.pg348.357

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Effect of Concept Mapping Technique on Secondary School Students’ Interest and Achievement in Economics in Ikara, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Bulus Manasseh, Prof. Ahmed Henry Eggon, Augustine S. Azi PhD

Abstract

This study determined the effect of the concept mapping technique on secondary school students’ interest and achievement in Economics in Ikara Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study, which adopted a quasi-experimental design, specifically a pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group design. The population comprised 3,058 Senior Secondary School Two students across 11 public senior secondary schools. From this population, two intact SSII Economics classes were purposively selected from two co-educational public secondary schools within the study area. One intact class served as the experimental group with 39 students (27 males and 12 females), while the other served as the control group with 37 students (20 males and 17 females). In total, the sample comprised 76 students: 46 males and 30 females. Intact classes were used to avoid disruption of normal school activities. Two instruments, the Economics Achievement Test and the Economics Interest Inventory , were developed and validated by experts from Nasarawa State University, Keffi. The validation yielded a validity index of 0.76 for the EII and 0.76 for the EAT. Reliability of the EAT was established using the Kuder-Richardson (KR-21) formula, producing a reliability index of 0.82, while the EII was tested with Cronbach’s Alpha, yielding 0.75. Means and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions, and ANCOVA was employed to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the concept mapping technique was more effective than the discussion method in enhancing students’ achievement and interest in Economics. Students taught with concept mapping performed significantly better academically and demonstrated greater interest compared to those taught with the discussion method. The study recommends that Economics teachers adopt concept mapping techniques to improve students’ achievement and interest in Economics.

Keywords

concept mappingEconomics educationstudent interestachievementsecondary school student

References

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Effect of Concept Mapping Technique on Secondary School Students’ Interest and Achievement in Economics in Ikara, Kaduna State, Nigeria

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